Rebounding Jesstacartel leads Champions field

CYPRESS, Calif. – In January, Jesstacartel was so ill days before a race that he was taken out of training and given a lengthy rest at trainer Mark Skeen’s ranch in St. George, Utah. The goal was to resume racing at Los Alamitos in the second half of the year.

At the time, Skeen never imagined the 3-year-old Jesstacartel would win derbies in August and November and be the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos, the nation’s leading race for 3-year-old and older Quarter Horses.

Owned by Lesley Joyner, the wife of retired baseball star Wally Joyner, Jesstacartel earned a berth in the Champion of Champions with a convincing win by 1 1/4 lengths in the $925,100 Los Alamitos Super Derby at 400 yards on Nov. 11, the most lucrative win of his career.

The Champion of Champions will be Jesstacartel’s first start at 440 yards, the classic distance for Quarter Horses, and first start against older horses.

“I think he’ll love the 440 and he’s lightly raced,” Skeen said. “This will be his sixth out this year.”

Jesstacartel is one of two 3-year-olds in the field of 10, along with Yanque, who qualified by finishing third in a division of the time trials on Nov. 18. Some runners qualified by winning major stakes through the year, others through the trials.

There are familiar names in the field. Heza Dasha Fire, who won the 2015 Champion of Champions and has been second the last two years, qualified with a second-place finish in the time trials. Earlier this year, Heza Dasha Fire won the Spencer Childers Championship in July.

“I think the last race helped him as a prep race,” trainer Jose Flores said. “This is the best he’s come back from a race in his last three races.”

Zoomin for Spuds won the 2016 Champion of Champions, but is considered an outsider this year. He won the Vessels Maturity in July, earning a qualifying berth.

Bh Lisas Boy and He Looks Hot won major races in recent months and figure to be the most significant threats to Jesstacartel.

Bh Lisas Boy qualified with a win in the Brad McKinzie Winter Championship last February and won a trial race on Nov. 17.

He Looks Hot earned a berth with a win in the Los Alamitos Championship at 440 yards on Oct. 14. Bh Lisas Boy and He Looks Hot were fifth and seventh in the 2017 Champion of Champions.